I can't figure out how many owlets there are right now...looks like at least 2.
We'd need a ceiling cam view to see if there are any eggs, but she's been stuck to them like glue all day.

My guess is two chicks, one egg and one MIA. I'd love to hear that there are 3 chicks and one egg, but I kind of doubt it...

OK, so he's 4 minutes late. 5:34

yeah, but WHAT is he? Yikes.

Good night in owlese...

not out of the woods with that owlet #2, apparently. the fire ants may have gotten to it. Chris had to take the nest down and open some of the egg. the chick was peeping but there was blood. He may or may not make it.

This may have been posted eons ago - it's not that new. My dad got it on email; it was a bit too cool for comfort, so I checked it with Snopes, and it's on the level. Again, apologies if it's old news to everyone but me.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/maiken.asp

hahaha. you must have just captured that one. I checked in a minute before or after and everything was moving in exactly that direction! lol

...when the Pirate was out hijacking merchant ships on the open seas, that is...

I was wondering that, Ei, it seemed enormous.
But there's a ***LOT of news at Chris' place! He found fire ants in the nest box and had to take everything apart to exterminate them. He did it when the Pirate was out, and he has killer color photos up of the 2-day-old owlet in his hand, and a second of the owlet and a hatching egg that he believes was not entered by the ants. There are also a bunch of terrific shots from yesterday. Here's the links for the 2 color shots:
http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2010/20100423/Owlet%202.5%20Days%20Old.jpg
http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/2010/20100423/Owlet%20and%20Eggs.jpg

two really nice ones. Check out the lizard face and hand!

Here you can see a few pictures of them.
http://www.oehoe.web-log.nl/
greetings Aafke

oh, they're beautiful! And what FEET!!!

"don't you people EVER sleep??"

By Tim Cocks
ABIDJAN, April 21 (Reuters) - Six years after the insect killer DDT was globally outlawed on grounds of environmental damage, two researchers say there are new reasons for doubting the chemical is harmful and are urging its use against malaria.

In a book launched on Wednesday, Donald Roberts, professor of tropical medicine at the U.S. military's Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, and Richard Tren, head of the pro-DDT lobby group Africa Fighting Malaria, argue that DDT is today the only effective weapon against the deadly mosquito-borne parasite.

DDT's unprecedented power to kill insects won its inventor a Nobel prize in the 1940s and it was considered a wonder chemical until evidence emerged of its toxicity to wildlife and people, leading Western nations to ban it in the 1970s.

A treaty to forbid its use worldwide along with a dozen other industrial chemicals came into effect in 2004, but some countries like South Africa and Ethiopia still take advantage of tightly limited exemptions allowing indoor spraying.

Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloromethylmethane (DDT) has been blamed for birth defects in humans and threatening endangered birds such as the bald eagle by thinning their egg shells.

"There are an almost endless list of claims that DDT causes one kind of harm or another but ... with each claim, the evidence that the DDT is the cause is simply not there," Roberts told Reuters in a telephone interview. "The Excellent Powder" claims new evidence shows DDT is harmless because it is similar to organic chemicals found in nature that animal life can deal with.

The book also tackles the issue of resistance to the poison, saying DDT is a good repellent, not just killer, of mosquitoes.

Malaria kills roughly a million children a year, mostly in Africa, according to the World Health Organisation.

In the humid, tropical West African nation of Ivory Coast, malaria kills 176 children under five each day, the government's top malaria official, Dr Sam Koffi Moise, told Reuters.

...

"Millions of malaria deaths ... occurred during ... decades of environmental activism (against) DDT," the book concludes.

Tren, a free market lobbyist who has also criticised tobacco control, said bird species harmed by DDT were already under threat and that DDT was "a minor source of harm compared to the hunting, shooting, poisoning and land use changes".

No, the light one is Matilda Jane.   

Matilda Jane? Is that that white chick?

Chris has posted short quicktime films of owlet #1's hatching, from above and the side

http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/

so sorry, Ei, about your lilacs. they are my very favorite of all.

and from the side